Indian Revenue Intelligence Bureau: Criminal groups are turning to stablecoins and abandoning the underground money transfer system Hawara.

Odaily Planet Daily reports that India's Tax Intelligence Bureau (DRI), in its 2024-25 India Smuggling Report, warned that cryptocurrencies and stablecoins are increasingly replacing the informal money transfer system Hawala as the primary means of transferring funds in drug and gold smuggling activities. The report states that digital assets, due to their "decentralized, anonymous, and borderless nature," provide smuggling syndicates with "faster anonymous settlements, minimal regulation, and weak anti-money laundering compliance." A case uncovered by the DRI revealed that a transnational gold smuggling syndicate laundered over $12.7 million through Hawala and USDT. In this case, the mastermind used multiple crypto wallets to layer funds to maintain anonymity and communicated via VPN using encrypted applications such as WeChat. (Decrypt)